We didn’t know, for instance, what performs better: a video or long form message.

We didn’t know if questions created more engagement than invitations, or if personal stories create a bigger impact than results/trainings.

UNTIL NOW 🙂

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last two years, it’s to value and protect your time. I love Facebook, and I intend to keep using it (a lot), but I want to focus on less so I create more impact.

I want to make the most out of every post, and the only way I can do this is to know what works and what doesn’t.

I want to help you do the same, so you can make sure you’re using Facebook in the best possible way.

Because if you’re like the business owners we help in The Relevancy Engine, you don’t have the time or resources to waste.You want to quit hustling and instead become a business owner who works on your business (not an entrepreneur jumping from idea to the next).

I’m not for one second saying you NEED to use Facebook to make this work.

You don’t. You need to build your entire marketing around you, your business model and your audience. For some people this doesn’t include Facebook, but the reality is (at least for now) Facebook is an important part for “most” entrepreneurs.

And honestly, it’s still the easiest and cheapest way to take what we teach throughThe ROI Method, and run with it so you can become “the” authority in your niche — practically overnight.

Relevant: Facebook allows you to share the right message with the right people…

Omnipresent: Facebook allows you to dominate their newsfeed, becoming ‘top of mind’…

Intimate: Facebook allows you share your story, and have them engage with you often….

This is what I’ve done for years, and over the last two years I’ve become hyper conscious and focussed about how I do it — BUT until recently I didn’t understand what worked and what didn’t…

Now I do, and after you’ve read this article… so will YOU 😉

I’ve had one of my team track and measure EVERY message I’ve posted on Facebook since the 27th October 2017 ( every video, long form article, image and random post ).

It’s opened my eyes to what works vs what doesn’t, but has also shown me how I spend my time.

All this will let me BLOW UP my next six months, allowing me to take my Facebook game to the next level. You can do the same after you read this, and I’ll show you step-by-step how you can…

(literally giving you the step-by-step SOP my team uses)

This is what you’ll learn over the next ten minutes:

Which post ‘type’ gets the best engagement, and which performs the worst…

How video performs compared to long-form article posts…

Which performs better: short or long form posts…

Which post ‘type’ created the most viral engagement…

How I spend most of my time on Facebook (and how I may need to change this)…

So let’s dive in…

First, showing you how EVERY single one of my Facebook posts have performed over the last six months (between October 2017 and May 2018), and then I’ll show you how we track and measure all this on a weekly basis — and how you can do the same.

[ in as little as 30-minutes per week ]

I have some templates and resources to help you do this, but first let’s jump into the results so you can uncover which type of Facebook post performs the best …

An Analysis of Every Facebook Post I’ve Made in The Last 6 Months

Over the last six months (October 2017 to May 2018) a member of my team has tracked EVERY single one of my Facebook Posts (posted to my personal profile).

(this is generally what I write about the most, but this list does get updated/tweaked)

Finally, there’s the level of engagement each post gets…

This isn’t an exact science.

But in general, this is how we score it …

Low = 10 – 30 likes and/or 5-10 comments

Medium = 30 – 80 likes and/or 10 – 25 comments

High = 80 – 150 likes and/or 25 – 50 comments

MEGA HIGH = 150+ likes and/or 50+ comments

Each week, my head of content analyses the previous week’s posts and updates the spreadsheet.

Again, this isn’t an exact science.

He watches the videos and reads the posts, and makes a call on topic type and engagement level.

He then sends me a brief overview of what has and hasn’t worked, which this helps us create relevant content that our audience needs (especially leading up to one of our video shoots).

I’ll share the exact step-by-step process we use to track and measure all this soon …

It’s a simple process almost anyone can integrate into their business, but before we get into the how… let’s look at the actual results from the last six months.

Here are the results in full:

We grade each message for engagement level, giving it either a low, medium, high or mega high status. The overall split between engagement levels over the last six months was:

Mega High = 19(3%)

High = 82 (13%)

Medium = 206 (31%)

Low = 349 (53%)

We then dove into each engagement level and created a breakdown for ‘Post Type’:

Mega High

Invite / ASK: 6 (32%)

Personal Philosophy: 6 (32%)

Personal Story: 4 (21%)

Lifestyle: 2 (11%)

Question: 2 (11%)

High

Personal Philosophy: 30 (37%)

Personal Story: 25 (30%)

Invite / ASK: 10 (12%)

Lifestyle: 9 (11%)

Question: 8 (10%)

Results / Training: 7 (9%)

Medium

Personal Philosophy: 97 (47%)

Personal Story: 49 (24%)

Results / Training: 27 (13%)

Invite / ASK: 24 (12%)

Lifestyle: 21 (10%)

Question: 12 (6%)

Low

Personal Philosophy: 194 (56%)

Personal Story: 57 (16%)

Results / Training: 44 (13%)

Invite / ASK: 35 (10%)

Lifestyle: 23 (7%)

Question: 14 (4%)

Finally, as well as ‘Post Type’, we graded each message for ‘Medium’ (long form, short form, image, video, FB live):

Mega High

Long Form: 8 (42%)

Short Form: 7 (37%)

Image: 5 (26%)

Video: 1 (short ad-video) (5%)

High

Long Form: 31 (38%)

Short Form: 31 (38%)

Image: 14 (17%)

Video: 9 (11%)

Medium

Short Form: 108 (52%)

Long Form: 55 (27%)

Image: 52 (25%)

Video: 19 (9%)

Low

Short Form: 160 (46%)

Long Form: 73 (21%)

Video: 67 (19%)

Image: 66 (19%)

I liked what I saw, so decided we needed to go a little deeper.

I wanted to know what the breakdown for each ‘Post Type’ and ‘Medium was, so we ran the numbers and came up with the following:

Personal Philosophy: 327 (46%)

Mega High = (2%)

High = (9%)

Medium = (30%)

Low = (59%)

Personal Story: 135 (19%)

Mega High = (3%)

High = (19%)

Medium = (36%)

Low = (42%)

Results / Training: 78 (11%)

Mega High = (0%)

High = (9%)

Medium = (35%)

Low = (56%)

Invite / ASK: 75 (11%)

Mega High = (8%)

High = (13%)

Medium = (32%)

Low = (47%)

Lifestyle: 55 (8%)

Mega High = (4%)

High = (16%)

Medium = (38%)

Low = (42%)

Question: 36 (5%)

Mega High = (6%)

High = (22%)

Medium = (33%)

Low = (39%)

====================

Short Form: 306 (43%)

Mega High = (2%)

High = (10%)

Medium = (35%)

Low = (52%)

Long Form: 167 (24%)

Mega High = (5%)

High = (19%)

Medium = (33%)

Low = (44%)

Image: 137 (19%)

Mega High = (4%)

High = (10%)

Medium = (38%)

Low = (48%)

Video: 96 (14%)

Mega High = (1%)

High = (9%)

Medium = (20%)

Low = (70%)

This is the complete breakdown of all the messages I posted on Facebook over a six month period.

We looked at these numbers over a few days and had some meetings, and came up with some eye-opening observations. I’d like to share some of these with you now, as they don’t only show what works on Facebook (vs what doesn’t), but also how to best use your time, money and resources…

Key Observations (and what I’ve learned):

53% of my posts get a low engagement, with a further 31% getting a medium engagement. This means 74% of my posts don’t perform that well, which further strengthens the idea that omnipresence is important (so you can be top of mind, at all times).

Overall, I share a lot of ideas and most of them don’t hit home. I take this as a lesson to share often — so you can find solutions and impact — but to also be careful about how I spend my time — so I don’t waste it with certain posts.

Of my posts that do go viral (Mega High and High) ‘Personal Philosophy’ and ‘Long Form’ lead the way; with ‘Personal Story’ and ‘Short Form’ not far behind.

Although ‘Ask/Invite’ posts don’t perform well overall, these types of post do create some of the most engaged, viral posts (32% of Mega High).

‘Video’ posta don’t perform well in terms of engagement, with 70% of videos scoring ‘low’.

‘Question’ based posts only account for 5% of total posts, but in general score quite well. This shows me I should ask more questions, more often — which makes sense, as these are some of the most engaging and community-based posts.

The vast majority of posts fit under ‘Personal Philosophy’ (46%), and although a lot do score Low, they account for 37% of the High engagement posts.

This shows me that ‘Personal Philosophy’ posts are important, although I have to accept that they may be hit-or-miss. Most of my ideas come from these posts, so although they won’t always engage other people, they can help me fine tune an idea or better communicate something with my team.

‘Personal Story’ posts also (in general) score well, with a good split covering Medium and High. This is because it provides intimacy, so is a type of post I can create more of (again, they won’t always perform / grade well, but they do help build trust with my audience).

The majority of messages I post tend to be ‘Short Form’ (43%), which dominates the low and medium engagement levels (over 40% in each). In general, ‘Long Form’ posts perform better, although ‘Short Form’ posts do have a purpose — especially when creating omnipresence.

‘Images’ only account for 19% of posts, but for the most part perform quite well (especially, it seems, when connected with either a short or long form post). I need to share more images, not necessarily of me, but graphics to disrupt my audience’s newsfeed.

‘Lifestyle’ posts only account for 8% of posts, but again perform well relative to this. I’ve always been wary to share too many of these, because they can come across as bragging (and almost every online marketer does it — far too much). But they do perform well, and is another way to build trust and intimacy with my audience.

I could share more, but these are the standout observations me and my team found.

It’s too early to say how this will affect my Facebook strategy moving forward, but it has opened my eyes (and I’m excited to test a few ideas in the coming weeks).

Fact is, a lot of what you share (whoever you are, and however big your audience is) will go unnoticed — either because Facebook doesn’t share it, or because it doesn’t capture your audience’s attention.

HOWEVER that isn’t to say it has no value.

The whole point of The ROI Method is to look past the immediate returns and instead focus on the long-game. This is how you build huge (long standing) success, so just because a post (or post type) doesn’t perform well doesn’t mean it won’t help you build the trust you need.

Step #3: On Scott’s personal profile, start at the top (Thursday just gone), and create a new line in the ‘Every Damn Post’ Tab for each new post (written by Scott Only*), until you reach the previous Friday (collecting all posts over this 7 day period).

————

Step #4: For each post, make a note in the ‘Facebook Spreadsheet’ of:

Date (month/date/year)

First Sentence / Title of Post (+ hyperlink it to the post’s unique url)

Step #5: Repeat this process until you have worked through all seven days worth of posts.

————

*only include posts written and posted by Scott Oldford. Do not include posts that appear on his timeline, written by someone else (and who tagged Scott into the post).

I’ve set this up as an automatic and recurring task, so this happens on autopilot each week. It’s usually done by the same VA (from Fancyhands.com), who sends me an email once it’s done.

There can be anywhere between 20-50 messages each week, so the time it takes our VA to bring everything together does differ. Most of the time it uses up one credit from FancyHands, which proves it’s a quick process (once the VA has done it a few times).

STEP #2: Update The ‘Facebook Spreadsheet’

Every Monday morning, my first task is to open the ‘Facebook Spreadsheet’ and arrange it by date (Sort Sheet Z — A). Assuming the VA has had no issues collecting the previous week’s data, a bunch of half-completed rows await me…

To begin with, I grade each post for engagement level:

I then go through each post and open the link so I can watch / read, and make a note of each message’s “Post Type” and “Topic”:

During this process, I make a note of any ‘standout’ posts (by highlighting them in bold):

These ‘standout’ posts are sometimes highlighted due to popularity, but sometimes I highlight them because they are articles / videos that could prove useful for future content (either for the blog or Youtube channel).

In total, this part of the process tends to take between 20-45 minutes (depending on the number of posts and videos). All in all it doesn’t take long, and it’s an interesting process as it gives me an opportunity to get caught up with ALL the previous week’s Facebook posts.

STEP #3: Email + Update The Content Team

Once I complete Step #2, I send Scott a quick email (Monday morning) with a link to the ‘Facebook Spreadsheet’, and include the rest of the content team in it (so they’re kept in the loop).

We also make a note within the email about any ‘standout’ posts or other noteworthy observations, so the rest of the content team can plan for their schedules / calendars…

STEP #4: Analyze The Data on a Monthly Basis

Towards the end of each month, I set Scott a task to spend 30-minutes looking through the ‘Facebook Spreadsheet’ and any other notes I’ve sent him.

The point of this isn’t to deep-dive into the data, but rather reflect on:

Popular posts vs non-popular posts…

Number of videos, long form, short form, etc…

Which posts create the most comments…

Which posts create the most likes…

Any posts that don’t perform well (especially if I like them)…

—-

Scott here again (thanks to my head of content for breaking that process down, step-by-step)…

As you can see, this is a quick, cheap and easy process.

Personally, I spend hardly any time at all each month on it.

But this final part (step #4) is HUGE!

It gives me an idea of what is and isn’t working, but also refreshes my memory on what I’ve posted in recent weeks. When it comes to planning new videos, articles and trainings, this spreadsheet is where everything begins.

It overviews everything I need, and because it links to EVERY message I post on Facebook, it’s saved me so much time — especially when shooting new videos.

It’s a gamechanger, and we’ve already helped several clients within The Relevancy Engine implement into their own business.

Which may leave you wondering… how can you do the same?

How To Analyse Your Own Facebook Posts (in less than 30 minutes per week)

You can do this entire process in less than 30-minutes per week, but my advice is that YOU SHOULD NOT be the one who does it.

Assuming you’re at $20,000+ per month, you don’t have the time for this.

Instead, delegate this process to one of your team, and give them the freedom to hire a VA (or service like FancyHands) to do some of the heavy lifting once they know how the whole process works.

You have to weigh up the costs!

If my head of content did this entire process, it would take him 2+ hours each week (instead of 30-45 minutes). Not only does that cost us money, but it affects what he can do with our content creation.

So it makes sense to outsource Step #1 of this process to FancyHands, for pennies to the dollar…

This 4-step process works for almost any person and any business, ands although everything we’ve talked about so far relates to Facebook, you can use the same process for other platforms: